Blogger fined $320,000 for lying about beating cancer

AUSTRALIA — In March, Belle Gibson was found guilty of breaching consumer law with her false claims on how she’d beaten her supposed brain cancer.

On Thursday, Melbourne’s Federal Court of Australia handed down the fine the Aussie blogger will pay as a consequence: around $320,000, the BBC reports.

The 25-year-old had made a name for herself in her home country when she claimed she’d beaten her cancer through a regimen of healthy living and eating, which she monetized via an app and cookbook she created, both called The Whole Pantry.

Per the AP, the fine was handed down due to Gibson’s claims that proceeds from the app and cookbook would go to different charities. But the charities never got those funds, and that’s when questions started to pop up about Gibson herself.

It was in mid-2015 when Gibson finally admitted she’d never had brain cancer, or other cancers she’d also initially said she had (she later called those misdiagnoses).

Gibson’s “pitch” for people to throw money her way “overwhelmingly used groups likely to evoke sympathy because of their vulnerabilities—young girls, asylum seekers, sick children,” federal judge Debra Mortimer said in March.

The Guardian notes the court had spent months trying to figure out a penalty for Gibson, and Consumer Affairs Victoria, which brought the case against Gibson, said she could’ve faced a fine of up to $860,000. But Mortimer had previously said it was pointless to issue a fine that Gibson would be unable to pay.

Gibson wasn’t in court to hear Mortimer’s decision, instead sending an email response to the AP that said, “Thank you for the update. Much appreciated.”

This article originally appeared on Newser: Blogger Who Made Fake Cancer Claims Finds Out Fate